Nokia has signed with China Mobile and Vodafone Italy to deploy 5G services in China and 5G trials in Milan respectively.
Nokia and China Mobile have signed an agreement under which the companies will jointly investigate how China Mobile can extend its service offerings for vertical markets using the massive connectivity, ultra reliability and ultra-low latency capabilities of 5G. The research will focus on how industries could benefit from the growth of smart cities, smart transportation and intelligent video analytics.
Under the agreement, which extends Nokia and China Mobile’s existing 5G collaboration, the companies will jointly research and trial use-cases leveraging Nokia 5G Future X network architecture as well as NB-IoT and MEC.
Nokia and Vodafone Italy have started a trial in Milan delivering innovative and smart 5G services for people in the northern Italian city, a hub for industries such as banking and fashion as well as a popular tourist destination. The first 5G site installations were done in December and have continued with a demonstration of high-definition video over 5G in one of the first field applications in Europe.
As the technology partner of Vodafone Italy’s 5G trial in Milan, Nokia will provide 5G network and application solutions to support the creation of a city-wide 5G test network. The first 5G site installations were completed in December and a demonstration of high-definition video over pre-standard standalone 5G was successfully performed on a live 5G site in one of the main central locations of Milan.
This first test, performed with an experimental device provided by PRISMA Telecom Testing connected to the Nokia massive MIMO 5G solution, demonstrated how the very low latency of 5G can enhance the customer experience of video applications. As part of the 5G Trial in Milan, Vodafone and Nokia will also develop specific advanced use cases across various industries.
In the trial, Nokia will employ the Nokia 5G AirScale massive MIMO antenna, which supports both 4G and 5G, AirScale baseband upgraded to support 5G, and Cloud Packet Core. Nokia will also employ its Global Services expertise including network deployment, integration and network performance optimization throughout the trial.
Nokia and Facebook are also working to accelerate the adoption of 60 GHz fixed wireless access technologies to deliver gigabit services and connect more people, faster. The 60 GHz band allows high-speed broadband connectivity in urban or suburban areas, complementing existing fiber. Nokia will combine its worldwide delivery capabilities and wireless passive optical network (WPON) with Facebook’s Terragraph technology to launch global gigabit broadband trials in 2018 with select customers.
Nokia is also introducing several enhancements to its in-home Wi-Fi solution that maximize Wi-Fi performance and simplify network management. The new Wi-Fi solution expands Nokia’s portfolio with meshed Wi-Fi gateways and beacons, delivers a new Wi-Fi Home Portal for service providers, introduces a mobile application for users and provides new software functions and analytics that improve network intelligence.
In another development, Nokia today announced plans to acquire Unium, a US-based software company that specializes in solving complex wireless networking problems for use in mission-critical and residential Wi-Fi applications.
Unium’s software and intelligent mesh wireless technology complements and strengthens Nokia’s end-to-end, whole-home Wi-Fi solution and supports Nokia’s strategic objective of solving Wi-Fi problems in the home.
Unium will bring Nokia field-proven, carrier-grade mesh technology that helps maximize in-home wireless networking speeds and ensures quality of experience across the entire home. Its underlying technology is already tested and used in a number of applications where high availability, performance and resilience is a must.
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